Ali was born in Iran. He obtained his BS and MS degrees in polymer engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology studying rheological behavior of polymeric nanocomposite materials and the dynamics of crack growth in elastomeric nanocomposites. He conducted his PhD thesis on the diffusiophoretically self-propelled colloids under the supervision of Professor Maldarelli and Professor Koplik at Levich Institute where he graduated in June 2017. Currently, Ali is a postdoctoral scholar in the de Pablo group at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.
Ali’s research career in chemical engineering began in 2012 when he joined the Levich Institute at the City College of New York. His research interests included the hydrodynamics of soft active matters with the main focus on active colloidal micromotors. In his PhD thesis work, Ali used analytical techniques and numerical simulations to examine the navigation of active colloids near boundaries. He also studied the effect of thermal fluctuations and mechanical perturbations on the stability of boundary-guided motion of chemically powered microbots using hydrodynamic stability analysis and Brownian dynamics simulations. In the de Pablo group, Ali’s research centers on the simulation of liquid crystal hydrodynamics, liquid crystal emulsions, and the dynamics of colloidal particles within nematic host.
